“C. Q.” or, In the Wireless House
Tangier to Madeira, and the ones that have the same wave-length fall all over each other. Of course, you can cut out the others. It ’s a terrible mess! And then you find out where she is, and the nearest ship simply goes and looks after her, that ’s all. It's—hello! There ’s somebody working now. He 's sending out a CQ.”
Micky switched on his mains, and the blue flame leaped through the air as he answered.
“Signals are strong. I should say he must be close to us. Just look out the window, and see if there ’s anybody in sight, Miss Bennett.. . . He says he ’s the Donald Castle from Liverpool to Buenos Ayres, and in plain view of us.”
The girl looked all over the horizon. “There ’s nothing except a sailing-vessel over there to the right,” she said. “They don’t carry wireless, do they?”
Micky craned his neck and glanced through the starboard window.
“That ’s just some old tub,” he remarked. “It can't be her. Queer, is n’t it? It ’s like a man holding out his hand in the dark. You know he ’s there, but you can’t touch him.40
